After 5 years, Thailand gets an election

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January 24, 2019

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After 5 years, Thailand gets an election

Source: AFP | 00:05 UTC+8 January 24, 2019 |

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Thailand will hold a general election on March 24, authorities said yesterday, the first national poll since a 2014 coup knocked out the civilian government of Yingluck Shinawatra.

“March 24 will be the election day,” Election Commission head Ittiporn Boonpracong told reporters, hours after the publication of a decree signed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn empowered the his agency to give a date.

Thailand’s history is pockmarked by coups, short-lived civilian governments and political crises. The poll date is set to ignite campaign season in a country where colorful and boisterous political rallies have often tipped into deadly violence.

The office of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called for an “environment of orderliness, civility and unity.”

An array of new parties — including some aligned to the military, others to the still powerful Shinawatra family — have already begun meetings and recruitment as a blizzard of names are tossed up as likely future prime ministers.

Those include Prayut, who has touring the country as he rebrands himself from a gruff man-in-khaki to an avuncular civilian leader with a common touch.

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After 5 years, Thailand gets an election

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